What's New @ Ramsar

News from the Wetlands International Black Sea Programme

Two new publications from the Wetlands International Black Sea Programme

Black Sea Wetlands Conservation Priorities

Edited by Sunay Demircan, Gennadiy Marushevsky, Rob van Westrienen, Vasiliy Kostyushin

Priorities for Black Sea Wetland Conservation were developed, discussed and adopted at the International workshops "The Importance of the Black Sea Wetlands, Especially for for Migratory Waterbirds" and "Conservation, Restoration and Wise-Use of Wetlands Resources along the Black Sea Coast", held in February and September, 2000 in Odessa (Ukraine). The publication includes descriptions of the current status of the Black Sea wetlands and their conservation, and priorities for their conservation with recommended actions.

Directory of Azov-Black Sea Wetlands

Edited by Gennadiy Marushevsky

229 pages, 80 maps, 6 figures, 97 tables.

The Directory includes information on 94 wetlands with a total area of 2,482,963 ha: Bulgaria (10 wetlands), Georgia (11), Romania (9), Russia (10), Turkey (5), Ukraine (37) as well as Moldova (12).

Thirty-two wetlands, totalling 1,945,298 ha, are of international importance and are designated as Ramsar sites. The Directory consists of an introduction and a series of national reports. Each report begins with an introduction that includes general information about the country (area, population, neighbouring countries, climate, biogeographical zoning, administrative division, etc.), a general description of coastal wetlands (location, area, status, protected areas, table of occurrence of threatened taxa in key sites, etc.), information on legislative and
institutional bases for wetland conservation and research as well as organisations involved with wetlands.

The site descriptions include basic information on location, area, attitude, wetland type, physical features (geology, geomorphology and soils; hydrology; water quality; climate), principal vegetation, conservation measures taken and proposed, land use and possible changes in land use, disturbances and threats, economic and social values, fauna (including tables on waterbird populations), special floristic values, research facilities, public awareness and education, and criteria for inclusion.

In the coming weeks both publications will be available to download from www.wetlands.org. For more information please contact:

Tamara Kutonova
Assistant of the Co-ordinator
Black Sea Programme of Wetlands International

PO Box 82,Kiev-32, 01032,Ukraine
Tel/Fax: +38 044 246 58 62
mailto: toma@wetl.kiev.ua

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 23 May 2002, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.